J Dilla AKA Jay Dee, hailed from Detroit originally, but is now in LA as part of the growing stable of beat heads over at Stones Throw. Working steadily, quietly, and with very little self proclaimed fuss (how rare!), he’s made beats as producer or remixer (somtimes calling himself the Ummah) for the likes of Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, Slum Village, De La Soul, Macy Gray, Q Tip, Oh No and Common. Most recently, and bringing him onto the radar for many, was his collaboration with Madlib, to form Jaylib and their album, ‘Champion Sound’. (For a complete list of his work, go here and try to take it all in.)
Similar in low key profile is another Detroit producer that one should peep for his beats. Wajeed is the owner of Bling47.com, the label that put out Dilla’s previous instrumental albums. Wajeed’s ‘BPM Instrumentals’ lp is dope.
I was lucky enough to stumble on to Dilla when “Jay Dee - Instrumental Series Vol 1″ released in 2002 at my favourite record store in Chicago, Gramaphone Records. His beats were not complicated, not too processed; unpretentious if you will. But the hooks and the melodies made for instant head nodders, typically with a short sequence of keys by guitar, bass or piano. Almost strictly no samples.
Dropping in a few days, Feb. 7th, is Dilla’s new 31 track magnum opus to the instrumental lp world. I’ve had on heavy rotation a promo copy (with annoying audio water marks and all) and it’s several times richer than his earlier work. Now many elements are layered, vocal samples are cut and spliced to killing effect, while handling soul breaks with great care over long recordings of string sections. The samples feel more like long expanses of a sound foundation on which to build a new track that feel fresh and very current especially in light of 9th Wonder, the Alchemist, and Kayne West’s soul sample heavy productions. He even manages to mess with the tempo to great effect, relaxing things on the afro beat track ‘People’ just enough to create a sound that keeps going… and then slows down a little… then gets going again into another vocal snippet. And I guess it’s inevitable that after his collaboration with Madlib and his continued relationship with Stonesthrow, that the production would feel larger, more polished, but whatever the case, this album is all the better for it.
If you can’t wait to hear tracks, then go here (on the right hand side of the page) for streams of the new album. I guess I have to wait till then to get my full copy with the rest of you schmoes too.
